Energy (and Other) Events is a weekly mailing list published most Sundays covering events around the Cambridge, MA and greater Boston area that catch the editor's eye.
Hubevents http://hubevents.blogspot.com is the web version.
If you wish to subscribe or unsubscribe to Energy (and Other) Events email gmoke at world.std.com
What I Do and Why I Do It: The Story of Energy (and Other) Events
http://hubeventsnotes.blogspot.com/2013/11/what-i-do-and-why-i-do-it.html
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Event Index - full Event Details available below the Index
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Monday, December 16
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6pm Boston New Technology December 2013 Product Showcase #BNT36
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Tuesday, December 17
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12pm Transportation System Resilience, Extreme Weather, and Climate Change
12pm Where We Go From Here - Janine Benyus
3pm BCSEA Webinar: The Rossland Energy Diet. What are the Secrets of Their Success?
7pm Code for Boston Winter Demo Night
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Wednesday, December 18
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12pm Bruce Schneier, Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard
4pm "RNA virus adaptation (or not) to environmental change"
6pm Farm Hack Discussion
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Thursday, December 19
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12pm FAS Green Program Brown Bag Lunch Screening
6pm What are Social/ESG Indexes and How Do they Help Concious Investors ?
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My rough notes on some of the events I go to are at:
http://hubeventsnotes.blogspot.com
Bulk Surveillance and the Problem of Freedom
http://hubeventsnotes.blogspot.com/2013/12/nsa-bulk-surveillance-and-problem-of.html
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Event Details
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Monday, December 16
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Boston New Technology December 2013 Product Showcase #BNT36
Monday, December 16, 2013
6:00 PM to 9:00 PM
Foley Hoag, 155 Seaport Boulevard, Boston
Seaport West building. Take an elevator to the 13th floor and look for signs
RSVP at http://www.meetup.com/Boston_New_Technology/events/154153082/
Free event! Come learn about 6 innovative and exciting technology products and network with the Boston/Cambridge startup community! Each presenter gets 5 minutes for product demonstration and 5 minutes for Q&A.
Products / Presenters:
1. GroupTones - Location-based social network for musicians. (Daniel Adler-Golden / @Group_tones_dag) Tech: Google Maps, Soundcloud, Jambase, Stack-Mysql, Php, HTML5, css, jQuery.http://www.GroupTones.com
2. TicketZen / @TicketZen - The easiest way to pay your parking ticket. (Cort Johnson / @Cortlandt) Tech: RubyMotion, iOS, Android, Rails. www.TicketZen.com
3. OneTimeBox - Create temporary live web folders. (Oliver Song) Tech: Meteor.js, Filepicker.io. http://www.OneTimeBox.org
4. Quantopian / @Quantopian - The first web-based algorithmic trading platform. (Rich Frank) Tech: Python, Ruby / Rails, CoffeeScript, MongoDB. http://www.Quantopian.com
5. Logentries / @Logentries - Actionable insights from log data generated from development to deployment. (Jeff Wharton /@JeffreyWharton) http://www.Logentries.com
6. FirehoseOnline / @FirehoseWeekend - Teaches you everything you need to know to become a web developer in a single weekend! (Ken Mazaika / @KenMazaika) Tech: Ruby on Rails, Heroku, PostgreSQL. http://www.FirehoseOnline.com
7. Flytenow / @Flytenow - Connects private pilots with enthusiasts, making your dream of flying become reality. (Matt Voska /@MattVoska) Tech: Java, Spring, Angular, Bootstrap.http://www.Flytenow.com
Agenda:
6:00 to 7:00 - Networking with pizza and beverages
7:00 to 7:10 - Announcements
7:10 to 8:20 - Presentations, Q&A
8:20 to 9:00 - Networking
9:00 - More networking over drinks across the street, at The Whiskey Priest, 150 Northern Avenue (at Seaport Boulevard), Boston, MA. (optional)
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Tuesday, December 17
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Transportation System Resilience, Extreme Weather, and Climate Change
Tuesday, December 17, 2013
12:00 - 12:45 p.m., Eastern Time
55 Broadway, Kendall Square, Cambridge
Gregg Fleming, Director, Center for Environmental and Energy Systems, U.S. Department of Transportation, Volpe
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Where We Go From Here - Janine Benyus
Tuesday, December 17
12pm
Boston Society of Architects, 290 Congress Street, Boston
Email rsvp at architects.org with "SEC 12/17" in the subject line.
Meetings are free and open to all, but RSVPs are required.
What does Janine Benyus' lecture at OMEGA institute and her work on biomimicry mean to architects?
Homework prerequisite:
View Janine Benyus' presentation at OMEGA institute atwww.eomega.org/events/index.php?token=5254531e884e5. Select "Where We Go From Here", register, then follow the link to the Janine Benyus presentation when you receive the email ticket that you have registered (no cost).
For more information on getting to BSA Space, including accessibility and parking, visit bsaspace.org/about.
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BCSEA Webinar: The Rossland Energy Diet. What are the Secrets of Their Success?
Tuesday, December 17, 2013
3 pm until 4pm in EST (12pm PST)
Webinar at http://www.bcsea.org/get-involved/events/2013/12/17/bcsea-webinar-rossland-energy-diet-why-so-successful
Two years ago, the residents of Rossland, a small town in BC’s West Kootenays, used to use 40% more electricity than average household: they were the ‘fattest’ energy town in the province.
Then something extraordinary happened. FortisBC PowerSense launched a seven-month, high-impact program to change that status, and persuade people to invest in energy efficiency, using the best tools in the book to remove barriers and persuade people to change.
Fully 22% of the homeowners (257) registered for an energy assessment and qualified for a rebate, and 34 businesses received complete lighting retrofits. Compared to the normal take-up rate, this is groundbreaking.
http://www.bcsea.org/get-involved/events/2013/12/17/bcsea-webinar-rossland-energy-diet-why-so-successful
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Code for Boston Winter Demo Night
Tuesday, December 17, 2013
7:00 PM to 10:30 PM
Cambridge Innovation Center, 5th Floor, Havana Conference Room, 1 Broadway, Cambridge
RSVP at http://www.meetup.com/Code-for-Boston/events/155079832/
Our Winter Demo Night will be at the Cambridge Innovation Center in Kendall Square, on the FIFTH FLOOR, in the HAVANA room.
At demo nights, Brigade teams will have the opportunity to show off the projects they're working on, celebrate successful work, and discuss blockers they're working through. We may be joined by members of the public, and may have outside guests present their own work to the Brigade community.
To sign up to present a product demo, pitch a new project / request help for an existing project, or speak on another topic, please email hweber at codeforamerica.org
Agenda
Harlan Weber: Year in Brigade
Tanya Stepasiuk: "Why Are People Here Tonight? Motivations for Participating in Civic Technology"
Ari Lev, Sonya Kovacic: Cambridge Community Wireless Update
Calvin Metcalf, Alex Shopov: MA Laws Explorer
Dazza Greenwood: Boston Ordinances
...More to come!
Unconference Discussions
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Wednesday, December 18
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Bruce Schneier, Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard
Wednesday, December 18, 2013
12:00pm to 1:30pm
Harvard, Maxwell Dworkin 119, 33 Oxford Street, Cambridge
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"RNA virus adaptation (or not) to environmental change"
Wednesday, December 18, 2013
4:00p–5:00p
MIT, Building 48-316, 15 Vassar Street, Cambridge
Speaker: Paul Turner, Professor, Yale
Microbial Systems Seminar
Web site:https://sites.google.com/site/microbialsystems/fall_2013
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Civil and Environmental Engineering
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Farm Hack Discussion
Wed 12/18
6pm
Community Teamwork, Board Room (2nd floor), 155 Merrimack Street, 2nd Floor Lowell, Massachusetts 01852
Register for this free event online at: http://farmhack-lowell.eventbrite.comhttp://www.eventbrite.com/e/apitronics-farm-hack-new-entry-tickets-9275325749
The New Entry Sustainable Farming Project, Farm Hack/Apitronics, and Lowell Makes invite you to an interactive dialog between farmers and those who want to help level the playing field for them and help support access to fresh, nutritious and sustainable local food.
Apitronics is a local start-up that is making wireless sensor and automation networks for agriculture better and more affordable. Louis Thiery and RJ Steinert, the company founders, are both board members of Farm Hack, an open-source community for resilient agriculture. As such, they are focused on helping diversified and regenerative farms become more efficient and productive. For more information, visit www.Apitronics.com.
Their systems are built on their own open-source platform encouraging tweaking and innovation on a farm level. The hardware is extremely flexible and designed for prototyping new ideas, but the most common applications include weather stations, field monitors, greenhouse alert systems and automation.
Lowell Makes is a non-profit community workshop and education center located in downtown Lowell, and is helping to organize this event as a way to extend the technical innovation being done by its members into the local farming community. For more information, visit www.LowellMakes.com.
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Thursday, December 19
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FAS Green Program Brown Bag Lunch Screening
WHEN Thu., Dec. 19, 2013, 12 – 1 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Mallinckrodt 102, 12 Oxford Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Environmental Sciences, Social Sciences, Sustainability
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR FAS Green Program, Office for Sustainability
COST Free
CONTACT INFO Brandon_geller at harvard.edu
NOTE Join the FAS Green Program as we screen environmentally themed TED Talks. Each month we pick a theme, and bring you different variants on that theme. This month is "Repair". Please join us!
LINK http://green.harvard.edu/node/6029
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What are Social/ESG Indexes and How Do they Help Concious Investors ?
Thursday, December 19, 2013
6:00 PM to 7:30 PM
The Friendly Toast, 1 Kendall Square, Cambridge
RSVP at http://www.meetup.com/Sustainable-Responsible-Investors-Forum/events/152369092/
The Dow Jones Sustainability Index, the FTSE 4Good Index and the MSCI ESG Indices... they all have different methods and criteria. Creating a portfolio that is aligned with your values and which has the right mix of risk and return can be tricky. Will making temporary compromises help to move corporations in the right direction? You can take a hard line and exclude most corporations, or work with good companies to move their policies toward a sustainable future. The indexes can help guide you in understanding your risk profile.
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Upcoming Events
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Boston Area Alternative Energy Supporters combined with: Boston Green Business Group
Monday, January 6, 2014
1:00 PM to 2:00 PM
Panera Bread, 5 White Street, Porter Square, Cambridge
RSVP at http://www.meetup.com/AltEnergyBoston/events/155056192/
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Push Button: What is so special about the Arcade?
Monday, January 06, 2014
1:00p–5:00p
MIT, Building 26-142, Access Via 60 Vassar Street, Cambridge
Speaker: Todd Harper
A 1-week lecture and workshop series kicks off a month-long game development challenge to create games for arcade cabinets installed at the MIT Museum and in the faculty offices of MIT's Comparative Media Studies | Writing department. This lecture series will examine the culture of the Arcade, the relationship between software and hardware design and the creative work produced for arcade machines, and how to design short, moment-based gameplay. A workshop follows each lecture to put these ideas into practice.
http://gamelab.mit.edu/pushbutton/
MIT Game Lab researcher Todd Harper talks about the performative aspects of the arcade. How is playing games in public different than on home computers and consoles? What were the cultural aspects of the arcade and how did this affect the design and play of arcade video games? What parts of the arcade have followed us home now that consoles are the norm?
Afterwards, MIT Game Lab staff will lead a workshop on the design of arcade games in the 1970s through the 1990s. Participants will play emulated arcade games of various vintage, to compare designs and play styles. Participants will also discuss the various cultural references in these games as well as marketing materials and other cultural artifacts surrounding the games.
Web site: http://gamelab.mit.edu/event/push-button-what-is-so-special-about-the-arcade/
Open to: the general public
Cost: Free
Sponsor(s): Comparative Media Studies/Writing, MIT Game Lab
For more information, contact: Rik Eberhardt
617-324-2173
gamelab-request at mit.edu
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Boston Area Sustainability Group
January 7
6:00 to 9:00 pm
The Venture Café, One Broadway, 4th floor, Cambridge.
Topic: Effecting Social Change at the Community Level. Speakers: Richard Pearl, State Street Corp.; Greg Hills, FSG; Becky Snow, Adidas Group. Register at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/jan-7-2014-basg-presents-effecting-social-change-at-the-community-level-tickets-9624096933
$10-12
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Winter School Lecture
Tuesday, January 07, 2014
7:00p–9:00p
MIT, Building 34-101, 50 Vassar Street, Cambridge
Speaker: MITOC trip leaders
Winter School is an annual IAP course presented by the members of MITOC. Its goal is to teach the skills one needs to enjoy outdoor sports in the winter. During the month of January, participants attend lectures every Tuesday and Thursday evening and spend time outdoors during the weekends. Trips are offered at various levels of intensity and include hiking, snowshoeing, cross-country skiing, back-country skiing, ice climbing, winter camping, orienteering, and mountaineering.
This first lecture of the MIT Outing Club's Winter School covers topics including clothing and gear, food and safety, avalanches and basic weather, and winter hiking. Lectures on January 7 and 9 are mandatory to participate in any winter school trip.
Web site: http://web.mit.edu/mitoc/www/#events/ws.shtml
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): MIT Outing Club
For more information, contact: Ben Scandella
bscand at mit.edu
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Science by the Pint: “The Huddlers’ Dilemma: The evolutionary biology of snuggling”
WHEN Mon., Jan. 13, 2014, 7 – 9 p.m.
WHERE The Burren, 247 Elm Street, Davis Square, Somerville
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Lecture, Science
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Science in the News
SPEAKER(S) David Haig
CONTACT INFO sitnboston at gmail.com
NOTE Meet a scientist over great brews and food! All are welcome! No prior knowledge necessary!
LINK http://sitn.hms.harvard.edu/science-by-the-pint/
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Boston Quantified Self Show&Tell #BQS15 (IBM)
Thursday, January 23, 2014
6:00 PM to 9:00 PM
IBM Innovation Center, 1 Rogers Street, Cambridge
Price: $5.00/per person
RSVP at http://www.meetup.com/BostonQS/events/155525672/
Please come join us on Thursday, January 23rd for another fun evening of self-tracking presentations, sharing ideas, and showing tools. If you are self-tracking in any way -- health stats, biofeedback, life-logging, mood monitoring, biometrics, athletics, etc. -- come and share your methods, results and insights.
We're happy to hosted by our friends at the IBM. Be sure to RSVP early to grab your spot! Come to meet new people, check out new hands-on gadgets and tools, enjoy healthy food, and learn from personal stories.
6:00 - 7:00 pm DEMO HOUR & SOCIAL TIME
Are you a toolmaker? Come demo your self-tracking gadget, app, project or idea that you're working on and share with others in our "science fair for adults." If you are making something useful for self-trackers – software, hardware, web services, or data standards – please demo it in this workshop portion of the Show&Tell. Want to participate in Demo Hour? Please let us know when you RSVP or contact Vincent at vmcphillip at gmail dot com for a spot.
7:00 - 8:00 pm IGNITE SHOW&TELLS
If you'd like to talk about your personal self-tracking story, please let us know in your RSVP or contact Joshua at joshuakot at gmail dot com, so we can discuss your topic. In your talk, you should answer the three prime questions: What did you do? How did you do it? What did you learn?
If you've never been to a meetup before, you can get a sense of what the talks are like from watching videos of previous QS talks at https://vimeo.com/groups/quantifiedself/videos
Don't know what Ignite means? Tips on how to deliver a fantastic quick-fire presentation at http://scottberkun.com/2009/how-to-give-a-great-ignite-talk/
8:00 - 9:00 pm MORE SOCIAL TIME & NETWORKING
Talk to the speakers, chat with new and old friends, ask other people what they're tracking, and generally hang out and have a great time.
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The More Beautiful World Our Hearts Know Is Possible: An Evening with Charles Eisenstein
Sunday January 26th
4:00pm
First Church JP, 6 Eliot Street, Jamaica Plain
RSVP on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/events/1390291651218107/ or
by email info at jamaicaplainforum.org?subject=RSVP%20for%201%2F26%20Charles%20Eisenstein%20forum
As our social and ecological crisis deepens, what is our next step as agents of healing and change? Charles Eisenstein's
(http://charleseisenstein.net/) work is an empowering antidote to the cynicism, frustration, and paralysis so many of us feel, replacing it with a grounding reminder of what's true: we are all connected, and our personal choices bear unsuspected transformational power.
Using real-life stories, Charles unites systems-level change with small, individual acts of courage, kindness, and self-trust. These, he says, can
change our culture's guiding narrative of separation that has generated the present planetary crisis. Charles is the author of several books,
including Sacred Economics (http://sacred-economics.com/) and Ascent of Humanity (http://www.ascentofhumanity.com/).
His new book is The More Beautiful World Our Hearts Know Is Possible (http://www.amazon.com/Beautiful-Hearts-Possible-Sacred-Activism/dp/1583947248)
http://jamaicaplainforum.org/
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Opportunity
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Where is the best yogurt on the planet made? Somerville, of course!
Join the Somerville Yogurt Making Cooperative and get a weekly quart of the most thick, creamy, rich and tart yogurt in the world. Membership in the coop costs $2.50 per quart. Members share the responsibility for making yogurt in our kitchen located just outside of Davis Sq. in FirstChurch. No previous yogurt making experience is necessary.
For more information checkout.
https://sites.google.com/site/somervilleyogurtcoop/home
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Cambridge Residents: Free Home Thermal Images
Have you ever wanted to learn where your home is leaking heat by having an energy auditor come to your home with a thermal camera? With that info you then know where to fix your home so it's more comfortable and less expensive to heat. However, at $200 or so, the cost of such a thermal scan is a big chunk of change.
HEET Cambridge has now partnered with Sagewell, Inc. to offer Cambridge residents free thermal scans.
Sagewell collects the thermal images by driving through Cambridge in a hybrid vehicle equipped with thermal cameras. They will scan every building in Cambridge (as long as it's not blocked by trees or buildings or on a private way). Building owners can view thermal images of their property and an analysis online. The information is password protected so that only the building owner can see the results.
Homeowners, condo-owners and landlords can access the thermal images and an accompanying analysis free of charge. Commercial building owners and owners of more than one building will be able to view their images and analysis for a small fee.
The scans will be analyzed in the order they are requested.
Go to Sagewell.com. Type in your address at the bottom where it says "Find your home or building" and press return. Then click on "Here" to request the report.
That's it. When the scans are done in a few weeks, your building will be one of the first to be analyzed. The accompanying report will help you understand why your living room has always been cold and what to do about it.
With knowledge, comes power (or in this case saved power and money, not to mention comfort).
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Free solar electricity analysis for MA residents
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dHhwM202dDYxdUZJVGFscnY1VGZ3aXc6MQ
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HEET has partnered with NSTAR and Mass Save participating contractor Next Step Living to deliver no-cost Home Energy Assessments to Cambridge residents.
During the assessment, the energy specialist will:
Install efficient light bulbs (saving up to 7% of your electricity bill)
Install programmable thermostats (saving up to 10% of your heating bill)
Install water efficiency devices (saving up to 10% of your water bill)
Check the combustion safety of your heating and hot water equipment
Evaluate your home’s energy use to create an energy-efficiency roadmap
If you get electricity from NSTAR, National Grid or Western Mass Electric, you already pay for these assessments through a surcharge on your energy bills. You might as well use the service.
Please sign up at http://nextsteplivinginc.com/heet/?outreach=HEET or call Next Step Living at 866-867-8729. A Next Step Living Representative will call to schedule your assessment.
HEET will help answer any questions and ensure you get all the services and rebates possible.
(The information collected will only be used to help you get a Home Energy Assessment. We won’t keep the data or sell it.)
(If you have any questions or problems, please feel free to call HEET’s Jason Taylor at 617 441 0614.)
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Resource
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Sustainable Business Network Local Green Guide
SBN is excited to announce the soft launch of its new Local Green Guide, Massachusetts' premier Green Business Directory!
To view the directory please visit: http://www.localgreenguide.org
To find out how how your business can be listed on the website or for sponsorship opportunities please contact Adritha at adritha at sbnboston.org
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Free Monthly Energy Analysis
CarbonSalon is a free service that every month can automatically track your energy use and compare it to your past energy use (while controlling for how cold the weather is). You get a short friendly email that lets you know how you’re doing in your work to save energy.
https://www.carbonsalon.com/
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Boston Food System
"The Boston Food System [listserv] provides a forum to post announcements of events, employment opportunities, internships, programs, lectures, and other activities as well as related articles or other publications of a non-commercial nature covering the area's food system - food, nutrition, farming, education, etc. - that take place or focus on or around Greater Boston (broadly delineated)."
The Boston area is one of the most active nationwide in terms of food system activities - projects, services, and events connected to food, farming, nutrition - and often connected to education, public health, environment, arts, social services and other arenas. Hundreds of organizations and enterprises cover our area, but what is going on week-to-week is not always well publicized.
Hence, the new Boston Food System listserv, as the place to let everyone know about these activities. Specifically:
Use of the BFS list will begin soon, once we get a decent base of subscribers. Clarification of what is appropriate to announce and other posting guidelines will be provided as well.
It's easy to subscribe right now at https://elist.tufts.edu/wws/subscribe/bfs
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Artisan Asylum http://artisansasylum.com/
Sprout & Co: Community Driven Investigations http://thesprouts.org/
Greater Boston Solidarity Economy Mapping Project http://www.transformationcentral.org/solidarity/mapping/mapping.html
a project by Wellesley College students that invites participation, contact jmatthaei at wellesley.edu
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Bostonsmart.com's Guide to Boston http://www.bostonsmarts.com/BostonGuide/
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Links to events at 60 colleges and universities at Hubevents http://hubevents.blogspot.com
Thanks to
Fred Hapgood's Selected Lectures on Science and Engineering in the Boston Area: http://www.BostonScienceLectures.com
MIT Events: http://events.mit.edu
MIT Energy Club: http://www.mitenergyclub.org/calendar/mit_events_template
Harvard Events: http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/harvard-events/events-calendar/
Harvard Environment: http://www.environment.harvard.edu/events/calendar/
Sustainability at Harvard: http://green.harvard.edu/events
Mass Climate Action: http://www.massclimateaction.net/calendar/events/index.php
Meetup: http://www.meetup.com/
Eventbrite: http://www.eventbrite.com/
Microsoft NERD Center: http://microsoftcambridge.com/Events/tabid/57/Default.aspx
Startup and Entrepreneurial Events: http://www.greenhornconnect.com/events/calendar
High Tech Events: http://harddatafactory.com/Johnny_Monsarrat/index.html
Cambridge Civic Journal: http://www.rwinters.com
Cambridge Happenings: CambridgeHappenings.org
Boston Area Computer User Groups: http://www.bugc.org/
Arts and Cultural Events List: http://aacel.blogspot.com/
Boston Events Insider: http://bostoneventsinsider.com/boston_events/
Nerdnite: http://boston.nerdnite.com/